Magazine: Epicurean Living

Epicureanism isn’t a dogma or a religion. It’s named after a long-dead Greek philosopher (Epicurus) whose writings were lost in a fire. We think he liked to eat olives and chat about good living with a group of his nature-loving, deeply thoughtful friends while hanging out in his garden. (So do I!)

In truth, at this point, his ideas are more of a “gist” or loose “framework” of a philosophy that’s been adapted over thousands of years. I can sum up how it applies to my life in a single sentence.

Epicureanism is pleasurable living by way of moderation.

When our lives are filled up with more than we need to be happy, we have no room for profound and meaningful experience. It takes dedicated time spent contemplating and then executing our personal answers to the great philosophical question: